The good thing about doing a mystery tour is that we had so many options and could go wherever sounded interesting; the bad thing was that we spent ages most days trying to work out where to go and what to do. We are now safely home and this blog chronicles that final leg of our trip home, which included lots of socialising, bush camps and a final waterfall.
After the fun of The Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail, we revisited Lara Wetlands on the last day of the season that they were open. We were probably last to arrive and certainly last to leave in the morning! Did enjoy a soak in the very hot thermal pool.
A sunset soak in the lovely hot springs, after everyone else had left.This was our campsite in the now-empty wetlands. Normally the area is full of campers.
Since we were on a mission to get to Explorer Motorhomes on a set day, we did two driving days of over 500 kms each day; in a marked contrast to the rest of our trip. Spent one night in a free camp and then two nights in a lovely bush camp.
Barambah Bush Camp where we selected our own spot by one of their dams. Very peaceful until the hordes arrived for the long weekend, but still nice.
From here we had another social time in the Sunshine Coast. Lunch out in Noosa with Pamela and Rod, plus dinner and breakfast with Gordon and Joanne in Tewantin.
Afternoon tea with Janice & John in their lovely house overlooking Sunrise Beach.Another night in Allan’s driveway plus dinner out with Allan and Barbara.
Since we were getting a few things attended to in Belle, we decided to clean her up a bit in a carwash as she was pretty dirty, and we didn’t want it to look like we didn’t take care of her. The Explorer people attended to most of our issues in one day and we were able have a nice night out with our friends, Denise and Steve, who had just that day moved into their new house. As we had seen the various stages of the build over the last 10 months, it felt appropriate to be celebrating this occasion with them.
With Steve and Denise in their new house, at the end of dinner and a long day for ‘the tired unpackers’.
Our time in Queensland was finished as we finally decided to cross the border for home. However we did need to park in the street outside the caravan park to work out which route to take. That’s almost delaying a decision too long! Decided to take an inland route as we’d driven up the coast road.
This sign greeted us as we crossed the border back into NSW, although no one stopped us driving through the border.Drove around Mt Lindsay and over a mountain range before we ended up at another nice bush camp, Rainforest Gateway, near Kyogle.Our campsite was beside the creek. They brought us wood and a fire pit; so what could we do! It was a nice place, not crowded so we stayed three nights. Very relaxing and we enjoyed helping ourselves to the fresh herbs on offer, as well as buying a dozen eggs from the owner, who collected them from the chickens, 10 minutes before she gave them to me.Another lovely bush camp near Deepwater. Stayed here two nights so we managed to have five nights where we had a campfire and practiced our ukuleles. Finally getting in the swing of having a fire. Its only been five years without them.There were two sheep, lots of chickens and two horses at this camp, plus swooping magpies. This guy really wanted to get in the van and the magpies were determined to swoop us. The chickens were satisfied with just pecking at our feet and chairs.Good place for a practice!Our next stop was in Wild Rivers National Park, where we camped at the Apsley Falls campground. While we were viewing the waterfall, we met a Channel 7 cameraman. He took some video of us for his story about local tourism (one was used in their 6pm news) and then he used our camera to take this photo for us.Our last stop was with Kevin and Jenny at their property- our visit there was a nice re-introduction to being back home.Before we left we did a walk around the property, accompanied by the dogs and cats.
This map outlines our 2020 Mystery Tour, where we went up the coast and returned through an inland route.Here are the statistics we like to keep for comparing our trips.
Thanks to all who came with us ‘virtually’ on this trip. We appreciate all the comments and feedback that you give us. We know we are fortunate to have been able to travel when so many people cannot, and we hope that our stories provide some diversion for those who can’t. Even without a plan or focus we managed to find lots of interesting places to visit and we continue to learn a lot along the way.
We’d heard about an interesting sculpture trail so we added it into our plans. We enjoyed it so much we decided to make it a blog on its own. Even getting there was an adventure, especially after we took a “shortcut” that turned out to be on private station (ranch) roads with lots of grids, gates and cattle and unintended forays into people’s yards; plus maps showing roads that didn’t exist. Probably was a longer way in the end but we saw different country.
Even without the sculpture trail we probably would have stayed at Lake Dunn (aka The Lake), as Dick’s family used to live at Dunn Lake in Wisconsin.
This photo is for Dick’s family. This lake is on private property and the owners allow the public to camp here in conjunction with the local council. The property owner (of 60 years) comes around at 5pm in a golf buggy and collects the fees.We had a nice campsite on the lake with our Explorer friends, Chris and Joanne. After our “shortcut” drive we got there in time for dinner and an evening fire.We joined Chris and Joanne for a morning uke practice, but it must have been hard for them as they are both very good players. In fact they have taught us a lot, and they gave us homework.
The Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail features 40 sculptures along a 200 km circuit. The story is that a local sculptor, Milynda Rogers, decided she needed a platform to display her work. I think she gave a precious gift to her community by providing it with one of the biggest, permanent, outdoor sculpture exhibitions in the world. As you will see, she has combined her love of sculpture and incredible ability to turn junk (ie old farm equipment, nuts&bolts, old kerosine tins, odd motorbike and car parts etc) into art. This was a well-kept local secret but is now becoming an international phenomenon attracting travellers from all over.
The artist gets her inspiration from local characters and animals. We started at The Lake with ‘The Crayfish’Then we saw the ‘Ballyneety Bronc Rider’. She uses a lot of barbed wire in her work, as well as almost anything else you can imagine!This ‘Cutting Horse Cowgirl’ looks quite real from a distance.On a close up look, you can see what she used to make this one.Looks like the local station owners are all involved as well.It took her a couple of days to make these ‘Butterflies’.Here’s ‘Goanna in Gum’This ‘Plane’ was surrounded by cows when we drove up. Some were resting in the shade under the plane.In keeping with the local animal theme, we have ‘Koala in a Tree’.‘Dingo on a Stump’‘Pig’, and this refers to the feral pigs common in the bush. The sort you don’t want to meet!‘Kookaburra’‘White Cockatoos’ on another station gate sign.‘Bottle Tree’‘Eagle and Snake’. Getting these sculptures in place must have been quite a feat as well.‘Motorbike Musterer’, complete wth his dog on the back.‘Thirsty Cockatoos’. 4 X Gold is a brand of beer in Queensland.‘Deer’ – the sculptor was so good at getting the proportions and shapes right, even with the wide array of materials she used.‘Possum in Gum’ – another favorite local.‘Mustering Dog on a Rock’‘Returned Soldier’. Driving up to this it looked very real. Imagine what she had to do to get this one in place.A closer view of this guy, so you can see some of the material she used to make him.‘Eagle and Nest of Chicks’. Her placement of so many of these is so good.
TIRED OF LOOKING AT SCULPTURES YET???? As you can tell by the light the sun was going down so we had to return to camp. Over four hours we saw the sculptures shown above, and just made it back before dark. Weren’t we lucky to have such fabulous weather and not another person around as we did that drive.
Just made it back in time to catch the last of the sun on the lake and to have another dinner with Joanne and Chris.
The next day we left Lake Dunn and completed our pilgrimage seeing every sculpture on the trail. By the way, this trail is in a very remote area, away from any population centres, and most of the trail is on dirt roads.
‘Frilled Neck Lizard’, another part of the local animal series…..‘Emu and Chicks’; not quite the same as the real ones we saw crossing the road earlier and those ones didn’t have motorcycle bodies!‘Echidna’ – lots of workshops would have been raided to make him.‘Rainbow Serpent’, represents one of the great and powerful forces of nature and spirit in Aboriginal society. This one is made with mosaic tiles.‘Jabirus’; my impersonation wasn’t so good but it does show how large they are.‘Jonathan Thurston’ is a well known, well regarded and highly awarded rugby league footballer from Queensland. He won Queenslander of the Year in 2017 and was nominated for Australian of the Year in 2018. It took our sculptor 10 months to build this sculpture of him.‘Pair of Plains Turkeys’‘Harry Redford Drover’; Harry was an infamous drover and cattle thief who carried out the audacious theft of 1000 cattle, including a white bull, and drove them from Queensland to South Australia in 1870, an arduous journey at that time. Eventually he was caught and tried, but the jury let him off because they were so impressed with his achievement. These sculptures illustrate local color and famous stories.Just checking out ‘Ram’.‘Pushbike with Goanna and Kangaroos’‘Roaming White Bull’ – she’s thought of everything on this one!‘Fighting Red RoosNote the detail in these guys – even forks for eyelashes.
As you can tell, we thought this was one of the best things we’ve seen on this trip. Due to our initial shortcut, we finished our sculpture trail in Aramac, the town where most people start the trail.
The main street of Aramac features a statute of the infamous white bull from Harry Redford’s cattle theft, but its 2020 so the statute has a mask. A normal statute looks very plain compared to the innovative ones on the sculpture trail. This little town must get so many more tourists thanks to the Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail, and there is no charge for looking at those sculptures. Its too bad the artist is not rewarded in some way. She said she likes to put a smile on the faces of the people who travel through her beautiful and historical part of Queensland. She has certainly done that!
